A crash faults detection service for wireless and mobile ad hoc networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an adaptive approach for diagnosing faulty nodes in a wireless mobile environment. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a diagnosis approach that has been previously developed for wired networks. A discussion of the novel diagnosis protocol and its correctness is also included. Findings – In this paper, the author presents a new implementation of a failure detection service for wireless ad hoc and sensor systems that is based on an adaptation of a gossip‐style failure detection protocol and the heartbeat failure detector. The authors show that the failure detector is eventually perfect – that is, there is a time after which every faulty mobile is permanently suspected by every fault‐free host, and no host will be suspected before it crashes. Research limitations/implications – The main limitations of this work is the lack of simulations results. Future works will be directed at providing such performance evaluations. Practical implications – The work introduced in this paper aims mainly at identifying faulty nodes in a wireless mobile environment. This service has been identified as one of the basic building blocks for dependable mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). Originality/value – The paper is first work that adapts a previously developed failure detection service to wireless and MANETs.